Extreme weather in the Southern Hemisphere in early 2022: from Rossby waves to planetary-scale conditions ...

• Main Authors: De Vries, Andries Jan, Afargan-Gerstman, Hilla, Casselman, Jake W., Hart, Neil C. G., Nangombe, Shingirai, Pilon, Romain, Rivoire, Pauline, Rudeva, Irina, Russo, Emmanuele, Wicker, Wolfgang, Yadav, Priyanka, Zilli, Marcia T., Domeisen, Daniela I.V.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.57757/iugg23-2450; https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5018302

<!--!introduction!--> In early 2022, several extreme weather events occurred in the Southern Hemisphere. Devastating floods killed more than 500 people in South Africa (11-12 April) and 26 people in eastern Australia (24-28 February and 25-31 March), while an unprecedented heatwave broke temperature records in Antarctica (16-22 March). This study presents a multiscale analysis of the atmospheric processes associated with these extreme events from synoptic to planetary scales. Equatorward Rossby wave breaking facilitated the transport of moist air from tropical oceans to the subtropical regions affected by the extreme precipitation events, while poleward Rossby wave breaking forced an intrusion of warm and moist extratropical air masses into the Antarctic conntinent. Southern hemispheric extratropical wave activity demonstrated relatively normal conditions during February and March, while wave energy peaked for wave number 5 during April. From a planetary-scale perspective, we investigate how modes of ... : The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023) ...